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Synchron Duality Strings | Walkthrough with Herb Tucmandl — Transcript

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0:14Hi, everybody.
0:16Our unique string collection, Synchron Duality Strings, offers a lot of
0:20innovations and a lot of possibilities.
0:23With this video, I'd like to highlight all the
0:25new features of this brand new library.
0:28But I also want to show you some tips and tricks
0:30how to use these strings effectively, which might be inspiring for your workflow.
0:35In a nutshell, to tell you what I had in mind when
0:38designing and producing this library.
0:40The naming of the library informs about the initial idea.
0:44Synchron Duality Strings.
0:46When working with ambient libraries, sometimes you want to have a closer, more direct, maybe
0:51a crispier sound.
0:52To achieve this, you have to use close mics as you would do in real
0:56world orchestral recordings.
0:57When doing this you get the section leader more prominently in your mix.
1:02More or less
1:03a Zoom In on an individual player in the section.
1:06In a perfect world you would have moved the
1:08whole section closer, which is not possible in a convenient way.
1:11In the sampling world you usually start layering libraries to achieve this goal.
1:16Even if you
1:17use libraries of the same brand it's somehow a compromise.
1:20For a perfect result you would
1:22need a performance of all musicians in a wet and a dry environment together at the same
1:26time.
1:27They should be able to hear each other so that all musical aspects are perfectly
1:31in sync, like volume, timbre, vibrato, note length, phrasing and so on.
1:37So I really wanted to make this work.
1:40Thinking about the options at Synchron Stage, I realized
1:43that it is possible.
1:44We have two stages, our famous big hall and the smaller dry hall.
1:50Doing film scoring for 7 years now, our musicians are trained to perform with headphones to
1:55deliver perfect results.
1:56The two stages are perfectly set up, with a Dante network, video
2:01and so on.
2:02So what we did was sampling two string orchestras in two stages at the same time.
2:07Let's have a listen to how this works.
2:10So in the first example, I will show you a short passage where I compare the stage sound
2:18of the large stage and the smaller dry stage.
2:24So I play at first just the room mix of the large stage.
2:31Now I solo the mics of the dry stage.
2:50And now in combination.
3:00When I introduced the idea to our Chief Recording Engineer Bernd Mazagg, he was immediately
3:05convinced that this will work, because he realized that this will offer a lot of creative
3:10options when setting up mixing templates.
3:12So he added an extra feature to this concept.
3:15Let's do two different setups inside the dry stage, using different mic types to get and
3:21bright and a dark microphone option.
3:30So what you get with this library are two strings libraries at once - a large ambient
3:35one and a chamber sized dry one which are matching 100%.
3:39You can use it in combination
3:41or separately.
3:43We will now look into the different patches, similar to a walkthrough.
3:47Many things are
3:48already well known, but I'll try to show some hints and tricks which are maybe not so obvious,
3:52and there are also new things which I will of course explain.
3:56Starting with the Short section.
3:57The usual suspects like spic, stac, détachés.
4:00What you see is that there are always two variations, bold and agile.
4:06Regarding agile
4:07I've seen that there s often some confusion.
4:08For example, if you perform repetitions with
4:11both versions, they sound similar.
4:13Simply because of the fact that they are the same.
4:16The agile version becomes important when performing melodic phrases.
4:20The normal version offers
4:21a kind of starting sound for each new note.
4:24In most cases musicians wouldn t play it that
4:26way, they would perform such a phrase similar to the agile style.
4:30The first version in the bold mode.
4:36Compared to agile.
4:41So this has more natural fluidity.
4:46A string ensemble would definitely perform this like
4:50the agile style here.
4:52Don't forget that the détaché can be used very
4:54flexibly.
4:56The maximum length is about one
4:57second, but you can perform any shorter length with realistic results because of the Synchron
5:03Player's release sample technology.
5:15What's more, there are different styles of détachés - soft, regular and marcato.
5:20Here you get three different playing styles.
5:23Which one's the right one will depend on the musical
5:26context.
5:27In most cases, the notation in a score will be the same.
5:30Musicians usually
5:32choose the right style instinctively or do get instructions by the conductor.
5:36First, soft détaché.
5:43Regular
5:44Marcato
5:52If we look at the spiccatos you will see there are two different kinds of spiccatos, both
5:56with bold and agile options.
5:59If we compare bold vs. agile you will hear the difference.
6:03Bold
6:05and agile
6:18The tight spic is an even faster performed version It's tighter, and most important,
6:24it has much more variations, which enables a high amount of repetitions without getting
6:29into machine gun problems.
6:38Just at different velocities.
6:49Staccato does have a slightly longer note length compared to spiccato.
6:53Most importantly,
6:55it matches perfectly with the spiccatos, which makes for very good and realistic results
7:00when switching between these two articulations.
7:19Let's look at the legatos.
7:20In a nutshell, there are four parameters available for Legato Patches: The start note of a phrase,
7:26the end note, the vibrato style of the sustains and finally the transition between different
7:32notes - the legato connections.
7:34First, let's look at the legato connections.
7:37The regular legato, that's in most cases the
7:40standard articulation, therefore on the first position in the articulation-tree.
7:45It's the perfect choice for phrases in slow to medium
7:48tempo.
8:21All interval samples do have two variations.
8:24So if you have to perform repetitive phrases,
8:27you get a much more lively character.
8:29A very good option is to interact regular with slur
8:33legato.
8:34Slur legato offers a very decent slide into the target note.
8:37Here is an example where
8:39we have the same intervals three times, and for the last one we switch from regular to
8:44slur legato.
8:45You will hear that the phrase becomes more expressive without changing anything,
8:50just switching to slur.
9:08Slur legato is also capable to perform exclusively longer phrases even in a faster tempo.
9:23The portamento is a longer and more prominent slide between two notes.
9:29We instructed all
9:30our players to perform the portamento as tasteful as possible, especially to get the slides
9:35not too prominent volume-wise.
9:37I'd also like to mention that all legato patches offer multiple
9:41up and down strokes when you perform repetitions on the same key, so real rebowing is available
9:48all the time.
10:05For the agile legato, we have developed a completely new concept of recording and mapping
10:09this category of performances.
10:12The goal was that it should work perfectly in all situations,
10:16for runs, trills, ornaments.
10:19First, let's compare simple agile runs with the real thing.
10:22Duality Strings offers also
10:24real recorded octave runs so we can easily compare.
10:28First a performance using agile legatos, the second one an original performed run.
10:35So you hear that the result is really pretty close.
10:43Maybe impossible to distinguish in
10:45a blind test.
10:46As I mentioned, the agile legato can do much more than just runs.
11:09Now the starting notes, the attack variations.
11:12I call it starting note, because these attack
11:15variations are exclusively applied to the starting note of a phrase.
11:19Anything performed
11:20after the first note in a legato-connected style is not affected.
11:25All examples we've heard were based on the regular attacks, more or less the all-rounder
11:30of the attacks.
11:32If you want to have a very soft and delicate beginning of a phrase, the
11:36soft attacks are your first choice.
11:38Here it's important that the starting note should
11:40have time to develop.
11:43Performing just a fast phrase with a short starting note is counterproductive
11:47and might cause a bumpy effect.
12:09So to make it more clear I just switch between the normal attack and the soft attack.
12:18Mezzoforte
12:19The counterpart of soft attacks are the fast attacks.
12:29Especially when you have to perform multiple short phrases in a row, this articulation
12:34is mandatory.
12:37Okay.
12:39And if we just compare this with the soft attacks, the same phrase...
12:57That doesn't work, right, it's too slow.
13:01Again fast...
13:02Let's look how normal works...
13:04A little too slow.
13:07So fast attacks is mandatory
13:09if you have this very short starting note of a phrase.
13:16The fast attacks are also a perfect choice when you have to switch between legato and
13:20détaché style and you don't want to switch articulations.
13:34The final attack articulation is the sforzato.
13:42This one has the heaviest impact on the starting note.
13:45It works for piano articulation and of course in fortissimo.
13:50And again it works
13:51very well altering between legato and non-legato marcato style.
14:14Every beginning needs an end.
14:16In the sampling world these are usually dedicated release
14:19samples, which represent the fading sound of the instruments and the reverberation of
14:24the hall.
14:25All articulations, except very short ones, like spiccato, staccato and pizzicato, are
14:31mapped
14:32with release samples.
14:33So far we have heard the regular releases in all examples.
14:37Duality Strings also offer a soft variation, which
14:40has a slightly longer fading performed by the musicians.
14:43First the normal release.
14:45The soft release.
14:54Furthermore we have a super soft version.
14:57Attention, this articulation is only active
15:01when you perform at the softest dynamic!
15:03The higher dynamic regions trigger the normal
15:05soft versions.
15:06Here you get a very musical ending, fading into a kind of niente.
15:16This articulation also works perfectly when you extend a velocity crossfade down at the
15:27end.
15:38Duality Strings offer two styles of vibrato sustains: poco vibrato and molto vibrato.
15:45The musicians have been instructed to perform a kind of poco vibrato, which does not yell
15:50VIBRATO but offers a nice and gentle sound.
15:53And the molto vibrato is, yes, a molto/heavy
15:57vibrato.
15:58Let's compare these two styles and of course as usual crossfades are always possible.
16:03I will start now with the poco vibrato.
16:05Molto vibrato
16:06Now a short phrase in poco vibrato.
16:20Molto vibrato
16:29And now something in forte, starting poco vibrato.
16:38Molto.
16:45Finally we do have another sustain style for the legatos, the espressivo.
16:49Here the musicians
16:51do a very gentle crescendo and diminuendo in the first four seconds.
16:55This kind of articulation
16:56is therefore useful for slow and expressive lines, which need this kind of built-in expression.
17:04You can use it with any legato style, regular, slur and portamento, and also with all release
17:10variations.
17:16It's also possible to perform medium fast lines, of course here you don't trigger the
17:33crescendo and diminuendo parts of a note, but you get a very intimate restrained quality
17:38if you need that.
17:39This is especially useful in the lowest dynamic range.
17:55All the examples we ve heard now for the different style options are also available in long note
18:01patches.
18:02There is more or less no big difference.
18:03The long notes patches are a first choice
18:06if you don't want any legato connections between notes and if you want to perform simple chords.
18:24Pizzicato and Col Legno work very similar to the
18:39short notes.
18:40We have again bold and agile options.
19:02And here is a tip where you can use agile vs. bold in a different context.
19:07Fact is,
19:08that for these articulations the difference is not that big, but it offers more or less
19:13a different set of samples.
19:15For example, if you have a solo phrase which has to be repeated
19:19without any tempo and volume changes, switching between regular and agile offers two different
19:24versions out of the box.
19:34If we look at the tremolo options you will notice it's more than just tremolos.
19:38There are two tremolo speeds, legato options, and
19:42different attack styles.
19:44First we listen to
19:45the two tremolo speed options, fast and slow.
19:48Of course there are crossfade options and
19:50if you want to perform repetitions within a
19:52tremolo to give some emphasis, that's also possible.
20:11The fast attacks offer very accurate attacks,
20:21ideal for short separated, fast movements, and the sforzato attacks offer really heavy
20:27impacts on the attacks.
20:29A typical style in dramatic passages and often used in operas
20:33of the romantic area.
20:34I start with the normal attack.
20:44Fast attack.
20:52And the sforzato attack.
20:58Finally, tremolos with legato connections to enable fluid lines, even superfast passages
21:08are possible.
21:09You can choose between regular and slurred legatos.
21:13Personally I find the
21:14slurred legatos even more impressive and realistic.
21:18Measured tremolos, also known as fast repetitions, are prepared from 120 to 180 BPM.
21:37Similar
21:38to the tremolos, a lot of potential is included in this patch category.
21:42An innovation is the
21:44possibility to perform repetitions within the fast repetition.
21:47There are multiple attack
21:49variations available.
21:50A well-known feature is the option to use a final repetition note
21:54at the end or to choose the XRelease without a last note.
21:58This patch enables smooth passages
22:01with pronounced attacks.
22:03For fluid movements legato and slurred legato options are the
22:25I
22:38think it s becoming obvious that we wanted to make each patch, each articulation as versatile
22:43as possible.
22:45I remember our early trade show presentations where Paul did a tremendous
22:49job to present our first generation libraries.
22:52Of course people wanted to try out the stuff
22:55on a keyboard there.
22:57All these visitors in general did not have a chance to learn before
23:00how the library works and how the different articulations react.
23:03For Paul it was quite
23:05stressful to lead them into the right direction: "OK, you should not perform legato passages
23:10with a trill patch" or "Don't play repetitions within a Fast Repetition patch, you should
23:16avoid this and that."
23:18So my goal now is to create patches which
23:20offer cool and realistic sounding results even with insane keyboard performances, and
23:25most importantly: the output is supposed to inspire your composing process.
23:30In the beginning of my work on VSL my mantra was: It should be possible to translate every
23:36musical idea with our libraries.
23:39And now I say: The possibilities might exceed
23:42your expectations - just try it out!
23:45This approach also applies to the trill category.
23:48There are trills from minor second to the
23:51major third available.
23:52And again you will see legato options and you can perform repetitions
23:55and so on, let's try it out.
24:19So all patches offer cool results staying within a selected patch, but there is no doubt
24:25that combining different articulations leads to even more inspiring results.
24:29There are
24:30endless possibilities.
24:32Let's just pick out some examples.
24:34First combining agile legato with trills.
24:39And now combining shorts with measured tremolos.
24:56And finally, combining détachés with normal legato.
25:06Harmonics, in our case fingered harmonics, are not a bread and butter articulation but
25:15offer bread and butter playing styles, like shorts, sustains, with fast and regular attacks,
25:21and tremolos also with regular and fast attacks.
25:24Just keep in mind that fingered harmonics
25:26are not so easy to perform, so a lot of things you can do on your keyboard with realistic
25:31sounding results might cause difficulties in a real world recording.
25:45There is also an interesting sound design option included, where a regular articulation
26:00is layered with harmonics in octaves.
26:03And the crossfade knob enables a kind of overtone
26:06control to your sound.
26:17Now to something completely different: Glissandos.
26:35Looking at the options in the articulation
26:37tree you will see there are octave, fifth and second glissandos, two different tempos
26:43for the glissando speed, bowed and tremolo glissandos, and of course up and downwards
26:48versions.
26:50Let's choose the first one, the octave bowed glissandos up.
26:55Most importantly, you are not
26:56limited to an octave.
26:58Depending on the note length you can release the glissando at any
27:02pitch.
27:03If you hold the key the glissando leads after reaching the octave into a sustain note.
27:25The fifth and second glissandos do have a similar concept, they just reach the target
27:29note within a fifth or second.
27:42The tremolo glissandos offer exactly the same options, and as usual there is an option to
27:58crossfade between bowed and tremolo glissandos.
28:18Now let's dive into the wonderful world of runs.
28:20We already listened to the comparison between runs and agile legato.
28:24So the question is,
28:25where are the benefits?
28:27At higher registers playing runs is becoming a challenge for the musicians, so there are
28:32light inaccuracies, which are typical for these kinds of performances.
28:36This is naturally
28:37covered in these phrases.
28:39Furthermore, the prerecorded runs are super-easy to perform
28:43on a keyboard.
28:44You will see simply playing around could trigger fresh musical ideas.
28:49All runs are structured in 12 diatonic scales, from C to B. All runs are mapped to their
28:56starting note.
28:57For example the C runs are mapped only on the white keys (the C Scale),
29:03the G runs are mapped exclusively on all keys of the G scale.
29:23You see that the octave runs always go through the whole octave, even if you just play a
29:28short staccato note.
29:29This makes it easy to combine runs performing on the keyboard.
29:33If you hold the key the run leads into a sustain note.
29:37So you have control over the length
29:38of the target note.
29:49In addition to the octaves you get fifth and third runs which are powerful modules to construct
29:54virtuosic phrases.
29:56I recommend to play around with these patches.
29:59I personally like this
30:00kind of phrase which is based on the third down runs.
30:04Needless to say that it would be
30:05impossible for me to perform this on a keyboard playing all notes within this phrase.
30:15Here is a trick to easily achieve runs in addition to third, fifth or octaves.
30:23I take
30:24the fifth runs and perform a short second step grace note at the beginning.
30:27Now I get
30:28a run over a sixth.
30:30If I perform a third grace note I achieve a run over a seventh.
30:35You just
30:36have to perform the tempo of the grace note similar to the run's tempo to get a convincing
30:40result.
30:50Generally all runs (and also the glissandos) have been recorded in octaves, the smaller
30:55intervals are constructed using dedicated releases for the end of the phrases.
31:01So the
31:02only limitation you have to be aware of: the ranges for the up runs/glissandos are limited,
31:07the last starting note is always an octave below the highest note.
31:11For the down movements
31:12it's the same: the last available starting note is an octave above the lowest possible
31:17note of the instrument's play range.
31:21We have only worked with the legato runs, let's now check out the détaché runs, which
31:26are also quite impressive.
31:29Everything you could create with the legato runs, you can
31:30also do with the détaché runs.
31:46Synchron Duality Strings also offers a new category of instrument presets.
31:51So far we
31:52had velocity controlled presets, further velocity XFade presets using cc1, and velocity XFade
31:58excluding all short notes.
32:00The new category Velocity XFade plus velocity control exclusively uses cc1 for velocity
32:08crossfades and velocity for articulation switches.
32:12We will go through all of these available articulations.
32:16First one: spiccato and staccato.
32:18The shorter spiccatos are triggered with low velocity and the longer staccatos with high
32:24velocity input.
32:26It's a very powerful combination, because altering these two articulations on
32:30the fly offers a lot of possibilities.
32:35The three détaché attack variations from soft
32:45to regular and marcato are logical candidates
32:48for using velocity switching.
33:00The same approach is used for the attacks of all the legatos and long note patches.
33:09Here you have four different levels: soft, regular, fast, and sforzato.
33:22A different approach is to switch between up and down phrases for all the glissandos
33:34and runs.
33:35This makes a powerful articulation category even more versatile.
33:50Now with third runs.
34:00And finally another approach for the trills.
34:03To stay within a diatonic scale you have to
34:06alter between minor and major seconds.
34:09So if I want to perform a trill scale in C major,
34:12I need a major trill on C and D, than a minor trill on E, major trills on F and G, and so
34:18on.
34:19With the velocity switch solution you can
34:20perform this on your keyboard easily.
34:23Minor trills with low velocity and major trills
34:26with high velocity.
34:36Exactly the same solution is available with the minor and major third trills.
34:48We are now at the end of this presentation and I hope some of the instructions have been
34:52helpful for you.
34:53Lastly, I want to give you some inside information about the genesis of this library.
34:58In the
34:59first stage I thought we will just do a small library, which will focus just on sustains
35:05with different timbres, and that will offer cool choices within a palette of sounds.
35:10The
35:11combination possibilities of the two stages and timbres like regular bowing, sordino sound,
35:16flautando, ponticello should do the trick.
35:19When my ideas and plans went around at VSL – it was not clear what we would record
35:25in detail –
35:26Paul mentioned that we definitely should not leave out portamentos.
35:29In a first reaction
35:31I was not that amused because I didn t have plans to record any interval samples.
35:36They
35:37are always so exhausting and time consuming to produce.
35:41But thinking a few days about the possibilities of the Duality concept with two stages, I
35:46was so convinced that this new approach is an important step forward.
35:50So I decided to
35:52do it right.
35:54Therefore this library has become a real big thing.
35:56OK, now you will probably say:
35:59That's fine, but sordinos at Synchron Stage and
36:02also flautando and ponticello would have been great.
36:05And of course you are right.
36:06So I ll tell you a secret: Really everything
36:09you've seen and heard in this video has been recorded with sordinos also.
36:14And we did smaller
36:15subsets in flautando and ponticello style.
36:16The amount of the whole material is so big
36:20that it is impossible to do an overall release including everything.
36:24As I said everything has been recorded already and the editing has also started.
36:30I cannot
36:31tell you a release date for the upcoming releases, but we try our best to deliver as soon as
36:37possible.
36:38Thanks for your attention and enjoy the work with our Duality Strings.
36:42I'm really looking
36:43forward to hearing the first demo compositions!

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